1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a novel animal trap providing primarily for the capture of mice and other small rodents. More particularly the invention pertains to a trap of the guillotine type for the effective an efficient entrapment of small rodents by a reciprocating guillotine member which strikes and kills the rodent by either spinal dislocation or suffocation without the severing of the head from the body. The invention is safe to use around small children since there is little risk of injury to a child if the trap is accidently released. In addition, the trap can be set and handled without risk of the users hands or fingers becoming caught.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
The control and elimination of the infestation of mice and other small rodents has always been of major concern to homeowners, shopkeepers and farmers. It has long since been known that mice and rats have the ability to carry and spread paracites such as fleas, lice and ticks as well as the many diseases associated with the paracites. For these reasons it is a major health concern to control or eliminate the population of mice and rats in the areas inhabited or frequented by humans.
In addition, mice and rats are known to be quite destructive to property by chewing on furniture, and baseboard moldings as well as plastic materials and in particular polyvinyl chloride products such as PVC pipe and electrical wire insulation. As a result the presence of mice and rats due to their destructive nature pose serious health and safety considerations for humans as well as expensive repairs to houses and buildings.
These undesirable characteristics of mice and rats has led to numerous attempts to eliminate rodent infestation by a number of methods including the use of traps or poisons. Poisons have the distinct disadvantage of posing a health risk to humans, especially small children who may unknowingly handle the poison. In addition the use of poison has become of major concern in recent years in view of the sometimes permanent environmental impact through the use of non-biodegradable pesticides such as DDT. Moreover, the use of poison creates the risk of poisoning desirable and harmless animals or pets and the poisoned animals expiring in undesirable or inaccessable areas which prevent their proper disposal. As a result the use of poison has a very limited practical utility and is not suitable for use in areas where pets and humans, especially small children, may be exposed to the dangers of using poison.
The efforts to control or eliminate the infestation of mice and rats have also concentrated on mechanical devices to capture the animal. These devices may be classified generally into those which capture the mouse or other animal live for later relocation or disposal and those which kill the animal instantly.
Those prior art devices which attempt to capture the animal live generally employ a suitable housing having a door which either pivots or slides when actuated by a bait lever. Examples of such prior art devices may be found in Woolworth U.S. Pat. No. 2,524,504, Symens, U.S. Pat. No. 2,478,605 and Mills U.S. Pat. No. 690,171. These devices have the disadvantage of being of a relativly large size in order to capture the animal and the difficulty of enticing the animal to enter the trap a distance necessary to trip the device. Such capturing devices further have the disadvantage of creating the burden of relocating or otherwise disposing of the animal.
The prior art is replete with devices whose aim is to instantly kill the mouse or other animal. The prior art devices usually utilize either a member which impales the mouse or a member which strikes the mouse with a deadly blow. One such example of the latter type of device is disclosed in Swan, U.S. Pat. No. 365,763. In this example of the prior art a housing includes a reciprocating guillotine jaw member at its opening which when released closes on the neck of the mouse to either dislocate its spine or cause suffocation. The mechanism is activated by a food bait lever to trip a latch holding a hook member to release the spring biased guillotine jaw. The trap disclosed in Swan U.S. Pat. No. 365,763 has the disadvantage of utilizing a cord extending from the guillotine member and around a pulley to the hook. This arrangement results in the tendency of the cord becoming tangled thereby preventing effective operation of the device.
Additionally, the arrangement utilized by Swan U.S. pat. No. 365,763 requires that the bait lever be pulled toward the mouse as when pulling the food from the lever in order to trigger the device. Should the mouse not pull the food from the lever or if the food is not tightly adhered to the bait lever the device may not be triggered when the mouse removes the bait where upon the mouse may escape.
A further example of a prior art device is disclosed in Owen U.S. Pat. No. 103,767 which employs a scissor type of mechanism for trapping the head of the animal. The device of the Owen U.S. Pat. No. 103,767 is activated by the pivoting of a bait lever to release the jaw to engage the neck of the animal. The Owen U.S. Pat. No. 103,767 device has the disadvantage of being difficult to set with a risk of the users hands or fingers becoming caught in the jaws resulting in substantial injury.
The prior art also includes a number a devices having a lever mechanism for activating a spring biased bar such as for example Quigley, U.S. Pat. No. 225,763. In this prior art example the spring biased bar is activated by a mouse walking on a treadle which unlatches an arm to release the bar which then swings downward across the path of the mouse striking it on the head or neck. This type of prior art device utilizing a treadle release has the disadvantage of requiring a greater weight to release the device than other arrangements and as a result may allow mice or other small animals to pass by without being trapped. In addition, such an arrangement makes it difficult to set and handle the trap due to the risk of injury to the operator when handled.
A further example of the prior art is disclosed in Lehman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,669,056 relating to a guillotine type device which encloses the entire body of the mouse when trapped such that the entire device can be discarded. The arrangement of Lehman's device has the disadvantage of requiring the mouse to completely enter the trap before the trap can be triggered. Since mice and other rodents tend not to enter small confining spaces particularly when insufficient light is allowed to enter the effectiveness of the trap is significantly reduced. A further disadvantage of devices similar to Lehman is the difficulty in setting the trap when the trigger is positioned inside the housing and not readily reached by the user. As with the other prior art devices this arrangement creates a risk of injury to the user when setting the trap.
The above described prior art traps have not been completely effective in trapping mice or other rodents as evidenced by the many attempted improvements. These devices have generally relied on rather complicated arrangements of springs and latches which have been characteristically expensive, difficult to manufacture and are subject to failure making the trap ineffective.
The destructive and unsanitary characteristics of mice and other rodents and the lack of success of the prior art traps have created the need for a trap which is reliable, inexpensive, easy and safe to operate, easy to clean and durable offering an extended life.
The present invention is directed primarily to a mousetrap which is inexpensive, reliable and effective. The mousetrap according to the invention is safe to use around small children since it is of a design which can be safely handled and moved without the danger of the users hands or fingers becoming caught or injured in the mechanism. In addition, the mousetrap according to the invention does not utilize any sharp or pointed instruments which strike the mouse thereby further reducing the risk of injury to the user.